Backers discuss Stockton police tax

Saturday

May 4, 2013 at 12:01 AM

LODI - Backers of a proposed tax hike aimed at putting more than 100 new police officers on Stockton streets said Friday they're not competing with a crime-fighting strategy mapped out by City Hall called the Marshall Plan.

Scott Smith

LODI - Backers of a proposed tax hike aimed at putting more than 100 new police officers on Stockton streets said Friday they're not competing with a crime-fighting strategy mapped out by City Hall called the Marshall Plan.

Rather, their goal is to pay for it.

"We're a funding plan, not a police policy plan," said Russell Ray. "The funding plan fully supports and complements all of the city's current programs, including the city's Marshall Plan."

Ray, a farmer and developer, made opening comments in a Friday symposium by Stockton Safe Streets, a coalition of developers and politicians, including Mayor Anthony Silva.

William Bratton, a former police chief in Boston, New York and Los Angeles, lent his star power to a panel discussion that drew out about 100 residents to Bear Creek Community Church.

The solution to reducing crime in Stockton is not "rocket science," Bratton said.

"In my opinion, you don't have enough police," he said. "My belief is it all begins with public safety."

Stockton Safe Streets backers seek to put their half-cent sales tax initiative on a ballot later this year, which they say will raise $18 million annually to hire police, increase prosecutions and increase capacity at the county jail.

They believe residents, skeptical of leaders in a bankrupt city, will pass a measure restricted only to pay for police and focused criminal justice efforts, requiring two-thirds of voters to back it.

The tax proposal has received opposition from City Manager Bob Deis and a majority of the City Council, who fear the coalition is circumventing them and putting Stockton's fragile bankruptcy in peril.

They fear the tax could leave the city's general fund in perpetual problems, never letting Stockton exit bankruptcy.

Aside from Silva, no council member nor Deis attended, despite being invited, organizers said.

Allen Sawyer, a political consultant, moderated the panel discussion, which also included County Supervisor Carlos Villapudua, Stockton Police Officers' Association President Kathryn Nance and developers Matthew Arnaiz and Anthony Barkett.

Silva, who has been at odds with Deis, previewed the theme of his upcoming State of the City speech that he'll deliver later this month.

"Leave your egos at the door," he said. "We don't have time for egos. Our city is under attack."

Everybody agrees, Silva said, that Stockton needs more police. Every time an outside agency comes into town to help, everybody cheers. But this sales tax proposal aimed at bolstering the city's police force has been characterized as "controversial," he said.

Barkett, who built the downtown cinema, addressed City Hall's concern in the symposium that the tax proposal might complicate and delay the city's bankruptcy. Stockton has already suffered the shame, including Jay Leno's jabs, he said, so why rush it?

Despite everybody's hopes of a quick bankruptcy, Barkett said it is more likely going to take years. The real battle will be the fight between bond holders and California Public Employees' Retirement System, he said.

"Now that we're there, why are we in a hurry to get out?" he said. "Let's be patient, get it right and focus on the main problem - that's crime."

Villapudua said he joined the panel because Stockton's crime problems run up costs to the county's hospital, jail, prosecutor's office and public defender's office.

"This is not just a city problem," said Villapudua, who also sits on the Marshall Plan's steering committee. "This is a county problem."

Arnaiz, the initiative's architect, assured participants that he is not trying to launch a shadow government and take control away from Stockton Police Chief Eric Jones.

Rather, Arnaiz said, he wants to pass a restricted tax to make sure that the money goes only to police and criminal justice.

Last month, Deis and city consultants maintained at a council meeting that Arnaiz's tax proposal is fatally flawed. Not so, Arnaiz said Friday.

"The analysis, in my opinion, was totally flawed," he said. "I'm not quite sure what it was based on. It was wrong."

It remains unclear when the Safe Streets initiative will go on a ballot for voters. Backers hope to do it in either June or November. They first must submit the initiative's language to the City Attorney's Office before they can seek the 12,000 signatures.

In the meantime, Nance said she maintains hope that the Safe Streets coalition and city officials in opposition will take up the police union's offer for mediation to reach common ground for the city's benefit.

Safe Streets backers said they have agreed to mediation, and Nance said after the panel discussion that she continues to talk privately with council members to convince them to participate.

"Some are more open than others," Nance said. "I'm still optimistic and hopeful."